Pretender

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ArthurBot (talk | contribs) at 10:43, 16 March 2011 (r2.6.3) (robot Adding: hr:Pretendent). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about "pretender" as applied to a monarchy. For other uses, see Pretender (disambiguation).

Template:Former monarchic orders of succession

A pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else. The term in itself is not pejorative. The original meaning of the English word pretend, from the French word prétendre, means "to put forward, to profess or claim"; this predates today's more common English meaning of "pretend", which is to claim falsely.

The term pretender is applied to those persons on whose behalf a claim to a throne is advanced, regardless of whether that person himself actually makes an active claim.[citation needed] Significantly, the word pretender applies both to claimants with arguably genuine rights to the throne (as the various pretenders of the Wars of the Roses) and to those with wholly fabricated claims (as pretenders to Henry VII's throne Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck). People in the latter category often assume the identities of deceased or missing royals, and are sometimes referred to for clarity as false pretenders or royal impersonators. A Papal pretender is instead called an Antipope, but some Antipopes did rule as Pope, and might only be declared an Antipope afterward.[1]

Modern pretenders

Further information: List of current pretenders

Pretenders in the Roman Empire

Ancient Rome knew many pretenders to the offices making up the title of Roman Emperor, especially during the crisis of the Third Century.

These are customarily referred to as the Thirty Tyrants, which was an allusion to the Thirty Tyrants at Athens some five hundred years earlier; although the comparison is questionable, and the Romans were separate aspirants, not (as the Athenians were) a Committee of Public Safety. The Loeb translation of the appropriate chapter of the Augustan History therefore represents the Latin triginta tyranni by "Thirty Pretenders" to avoid this artificial and confusing parallel. Not all of them were afterwards considered pretenders; several were actually successful in becoming Emperor at least in part of the Empire for a brief period.

According to the investigations and published works of genealogist Christian Settipani, all the current royal houses of Europe, and some beyond, are for a long time descendants and potential heirs of most of Roman Emperors, as are many of countries' nobilities and even many commoners.

Greek pretenders

The claimant of the throne of the last Greek kingdom is Constantine II, who ruled as King from 1964 to 1973 of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (a branch of the House of Oldenburg), whose designated heir is his son Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece. There are pretendenders to other Greek thrones:

The Byzantine Empire

Disputed successions to the Roman (Byzantine) Empire long continued at Constantinople. Most seriously, after the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and its eventual recovery by Michael VIII Palaeologus, there came to be three Byzantine successor states, each of which claimed to be the Roman Empire, and several Latin claimants (including the Republic of Venice and the houses of Montferrat and Courtenay) to the Latin Empire the Crusaders had set up in its place. At times, some of these states and titles were subjected to multiple claims.

According to the investigations and published works of genealogist Christian Settipani, all the current royal houses of Europe, and some beyond, are for a long time descendants and potential heirs of most of Byzantine Emperors, as are many of countries' nobilities and even many commoners. A few families of Italian, Greek Phanariote, Caucasian and other nations also claim descent from some of those families, in particular the Komnenoi.

Cypriot pretenders

Following the defeat and death of King James III of Cyprus in 1474, his younger and illegitimate brother, Eugène Matteo de Lusignan, also styled d'Arménie (d. 1523) removed to Sicily, then to Malta. He was acknowledged as rightful heir of the thrones Cyprus, Armenia, Jerusalem, and Antioch, though he never made serious efforts to reify the claims. The title of "Barone de Baccari" was created in 1508 for Jacques Matteo (sives Eugene Matteo) d'Armenia with the remainder to his descendants in perpetuity. Eugene, illegitimate son of King Jacques II of Cyprus, had, when his family were exiled, first gone to Naples, then Sicily, then settled on Malta, marrying a Sicilian heiress, Donna Paola Mazzara (a descendant of the Royal House of Aragon of Sicily and Aragon), with issue.[2]

French pretenders

The establishment of the First Republic and the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 led to the king's son becoming pretender, styled as Louis XVII. As Louis XVII was a child and imprisoned in Paris by the revolutionaries, his uncle, the Comte de Provence, proclaimed himself regent in his nephew's name. After Louis XVII died in 1795, the Comte de Provence became pretender himself, as Louis XVIII.

Louis XVIII was restored to the throne in 1814, and was succeeded by his brother Charles X in 1824. Charles X was, however, forced into exile by the July Revolution. Charles X and his son, the Dauphin Louis-Antoine, abdicated their claims in favor of Charles's grandson, Henry, Duke of Bordeaux; however, their cousin the Duke of Orléans, a descendant of Louis XIV's younger brother, usurped the throne as Louis Philippe I.

For most of the July Monarchy, the legitimists, as supporters of the exiled senior line came to be known, were uncertain of whom to support; some believed the abdication of Charles and his son legitimate, and recognized the young Duke of Bordeaux as king, while others maintained that abdication was an impossibility, and continued to recognize first Charles X and then Louis-Antoine, until the latter's death in 1844. One of these latter was the Duke of Bordeaux himself, who on his uncle's death proclaimed himself king as Henry V, taking the title in pretense of "Count of Chambord".

In 1848, Louis Philippe himself was overthrown by the February Revolution, and himself abdicated the throne in favor of his young grandson, the Count of Paris. However, a republic was proclaimed, leaving the Count of Paris, like his cousin Chambord, merely a pretender to a no longer existing crown. Over the next several decades, there were several attempts at a so-called "fusion", which would unite both groups of monarchists together, presumably on the basis that the childless Chambord would become king, but would recognize the Count of Paris as his heir. Such efforts were fruitless in the 1850s, but after the establishment of the Third Republic in 1870, when a royalist majority was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, these efforts were renewed. As a result, in 1873, the Count of Paris withdrew his own claims to the throne and recognized Chambord as the legitimate pretender to the French throne. In spite of this apparent unity among the monarchist forces, the restoration of the monarchy was not to be; Chambord refused to accept the Tricolor flag, which was unacceptable to ersthile Orléanists. The monarchists decided to wait until Chambord's death, but lost their majority in parliament in 1877, making a restoration impossible. The erstwhile Orléanist Adolphe Thiers called Chambord "The French Washington", i.e. the true founder of the Republic.

Following Chambord's death in 1883, the majority of French monarchists accepted the Count of Paris as the pretender to the French throne. A small minority of ultra-reactionaries refused to accept this designation, and chose instead Juan, Count of Montizon, the former Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, and the senior male descendant of Louis XIV. These became known as the Blancs d'Espagne (the Whites of Spain).

The arguments are, on one side, that Philip V of Spain renounced any future claim to the French throne when he became King of Spain, and that the Dukes of Orléans were therefore recognized as the next heirs before the French Revolution. On the other side, that this renunciation was invalid and impossible, and (in some cases) that Philippe Égalité and Louis-Philippe forfeited any remaining right to the crown for disloyalty. The split has continued to the present day, with supporters of the senior line reclaiming the title of legitimist, while supporters of the Orléans line are once again known as Orléanists. The current representative of the senior line is Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, a cousin of the king of Spain, whose line was excluded from the Spanish throne due to an unequal marriage, while the Orléanist line is represented by Henri, Count of Paris, Duke of France, a descendant of Louis Philippe.

In addition to these two claims to the historic royal throne of France, there has also been a pretender to the imperial throne of France created first by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804 and recreated by his nephew Napoleon III in 1852. This claim today rests in the person of Charles Napoléon, descendant of the Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon I's youngest brother.

German pretenders

The Hohenzollern of Prussia

Since the abolition of the German monarchy in 1918, the heads of the House of Hohenzollern have claimed to be the titular Kings of Prussia and German Emperors. These claims are linked by the Constitution of the former (2nd) German Empire: according to this, whoever was King of Prussia was also German Emperor, although that Empire was abolished, making the link somewhat tenuous.

Hohenzollern pretenders to the Prussian and German Thrones
Image Name Titular
Reign 		Comments
Prince Georg Friedrich since 1994

The Habsburgs of Austria & Hungary

Habsburg pretenders to the Austrian throne
Image Name Titular
Reign 		Comments
Otto von Habsburg 1922- renounced all claims in order to enter Austria

The Wittelsbachs of Bavaria

Wittelsbach pretenders to the Bavarian throne
Image Name Titular Reign Comments
Franz, Duke of Bavaria 8 July 1996–present

The Welfs of Hanover

Guelph pretenders to the Electorship of Hanover
Image Name Titular
Reign 		Comments
Ernst August, Prince of Hanover present head of the Welfs

Russian pretenders

Main article: Line of succession to the Russian throne

There is much debate over who is the legitimate heir to the Russian throne. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna is considered by some to be the legitimate heir. She is the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir who some considered the last male dynast. Supporters of Prince Nicholas' claim believe she is born of a morganatic marriage and therefore not entitled to inherit the throne under strict Russian succession law. Unequal marriages have made tracking a legitimate heir to the Russian throne very difficult, and some believe there is no legitimate heir at all. Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia a descendant of Emperor Nicholas I and president of Romanov Family Association believes himself to be Grand Duke Vladimir's successor. He is regarded by some as the head of the family,[3] but supporters of Grand Duchess Maria's claim believe he is born of a morganatic marriage and therefore not entitled to inherit the throne under strict Russian succession law, Prince Nicholas disputes this and considers himself a Russian dynast. Those who impersonated the murdered daughters of Nicholas II were not pretenders to the throne, as women could not succeed to the Russian throne while a male dynast was alive. Anna Anderson attempted to prove she was the lost daughter of Nicholas II, Anastasia, but DNA testing on her remains proved her claim false.

English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and British pretenders

England, Scotland and Great Britain

Pretenders to the thrones of the United Kingdom and its predecessor realms, as well as the other historical jurisdictions that are modernly England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, have existed from time to time. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, his son Charles II became pretender until his restoration 11 years later. In modern times, the chief claim was that of the Jacobites. After the overthrow of the Catholic James II and VII in the Glorious Revolution in 1688, many refused to accept the legality of the new regime of William and Mary, James's Protestant daughter and son-in-law, and continued to recognize James as king. James made a significant effort in 1690 to recover Ireland, but was defeated by William at the Battle of the Boyne. After James's death, his supporters recognized his son,

  • James Francis Edward Stuart, the Roman Catholic son of the deposed King James VII and II. James was barred from the succession to the throne by the Act of Settlement 1701. Notwithstanding the Act of Union 1707, he claimed the separate thrones of Scotland, as James VIII, and of England and Ireland, as James III, until his death in 1766. In Jacobite terms, Acts of Parliament (of England or Scotland) after 1688, (including the Acts of Union) did not receive the required Royal Assent of the legitimate Jacobite monarch and, therefore, were without legal effect. James was responsible for a number of conspiracies and rebellions, particularly in the Highlands of Scotland. The most notable was The Fifteen, which took place in 1715-16
  • Charles Edward Stuart, James' elder son, the would-be Charles III, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, led in his father's name the last major Jacobite rebellion, the Forty-Five, in 1745-46. He died in 1788, without legitimate issue.
  • Henry Benedict Stuart, younger brother of Charles Edward, a Roman Catholic Cardinal, best known as the Cardinal-Duke of York, took up the claim to the throne as the would-be Henry IX of England, though he was the final Jacobite heir to publicly do so. He died unmarried in 1807.

After 1807, the line of James II and VII became extinct. As the Jacobites had ceased to have much political significance after the failure of the Forty-five, the movement became essentially completely dormant after Henry's death. Genealogically, the next most senior line to the English and Scottish thrones was through James II's youngest sister, Henriette Anne, whose daughter had married into the House of Savoy. To the very limited extent that Jacobitism survived the death of Cardinal York, they supported the claims of this line. Its current representative is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, though he himself does not claim the title.

Wales

Owain Glyndŵr (1349–1416) is probably the best-known Welsh pretender, though whether he was pretender or Prince of Wales depends upon one's source of information. Officially, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who died in 1282, was the only Prince of Wales whose status as ruler was officially recognised by the English Crown, though three of the four men who claimed the throne of Gwynedd between the assumption of the title by Owain Gwynedd in the 1160s and the loss of Welsh independence in 1283 also used the title or similar. Madog ap Llywelyn also briefly used the title during his revolt of 1294-5. Since 1301, the title of Prince of Wales has been given to the eldest living son of the King or Queen Regnant of England (subsequently of Great Britain, 1707, and of United Kingdom, 1801). The word "living" is important. Upon the death of Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry VII invested his second son, the future Henry VIII, with the title. The title is not automatic, however, but merges into the Crown when a prince dies or accedes to the throne, and has to be re-conferred by the sovereign.

Nevertheless, it is Glyndŵr whom many remember as the last native Prince of Wales. He was indeed proclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters on 16 September 1400, and his revolt in quest of Welsh independence was not quashed by Henry IV until 1409. Later, however, one of Glyndŵr's cousins, Owain Tudor, would marry the widow of Henry V, and their grandson would become Henry VII, from whom the current British monarch is descended (through his daughter Margaret Tudor, who married James IV of Scotland).

The various minor kingdoms that came together to form what is today known as the Principality of Wales each had their own royal dynasty. The most important of these realms were Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth. After 878 the ruling dynasties in these kingdoms each claimed descent from the sons of Rhodri Mawr who had conquered them or otherwise achieved their thrones during his reign. Merfyn Frych, the father of Rhodri Mawr, had come to power in Gwynedd because the native dynasty, known as the House of Cunedda had expired. Merfyn was descended from royalty through his own father Gwriad and claimed ancestors from among the rulers of British Rheged (in particular Llywarch Hen). It was acknowledged by all of the realms of Wales after the time of Rhodri Mawr that the House of Gwynedd (known as the House of Aberffraw) was senior and homage should be paid by each of them to the king of Gwynedd. After the reign of Owain ap Gruffudd of Gwynedd the realm began to merge with the concept of a Principality of Wales. This was realised by Owain's descendant Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1267. It was not to last and this new Wales was invaded by England and dismantled between 1277 and 1284. All of the descendants of Llywelyn "the last" and his brothers were either imprisoned or killed. Surviving members of the House of Aberffraw descended in the male line from Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd in the guise of the Wynn and Anwyl families.

Ireland

The business of Irish pretenders is rather more complicated because of the nature of kingship in Ireland before the Norman take-over of 1171. In both Ireland and Scotland, succession to kingship was elective, often (if not usually) by contest, according to matrilineal descent. That is, the head of state of any kingdom, sub-kingdom, high kingdom, etc., was always a king, but the king always inherited the crown through his mother, as a ranking princess royal, not through his father. (See, e.g., The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History, by John Prebble ISBN 0-14-003652-0; among other works.)

Thus, a king would not be succeeded by his own son but would normally be succeeded by his mother's other sons; then by his sisters' sons; then his maternal aunt's sons; and so on, traveling through the female line of the royal house. This combination of male succession through matrilineal descent produced a cumbersome system under which the throne passed cyclically from brother to brother, then uncle to nephew, and then cousin to cousin, before starting over as brother to brother, uncle to nephew, etc. {See, e.g., The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History, by John Prebble; among other works.} In Ireland, however, the high king from the time of Maelsheachlainn I (died 862) exercised a measure of control over the country. He belonged to the Ui Neill dynasty and under the Brehon laws, succession was open to any kinsman up to and including second cousin. His dynasty is today represented by the O'Neill family, which would regard its head as the pretender. The O Conor dynasty provided two high kings and the head of the family, the O Conor Don, would also be considered a pretender to the Irish throne. The descendants of Brian Boroimhe are represented by Lord Inchiquin, who is also regarded as a claimant. In addition, pretenders or claimants exist to the localised kingdoms of Breifne, Fermanagh, Tyrconnel and Leinster. The O'Neills would also be regarded as claimants to the throne of Aileach and Lord Inchiquin to the throne of Thomond.

In Scotland, Malcolm II tried to get around this system by killing off all of the heirs between himself and his grandson, Duncan; except for Prince Lulach of Moray, who was just five years old at the time and - more importantly - was successfully rumoured to be half-witted (thus, he survived). Duncan I did become king, but Lulach's stepfather, Maelbeth - rendered "Macbeth" in English - successfully claimed the throne in his own right and on Lulach's behalf.

Duncan I's son, Malcolm III 'Canmore', ultimately returned from exile in England and took the throne from Maelbeth and Lulach (the latter reigning 1057-1058, after the death of Maelbeth in battle against Malcolm). Malcolm was succeeded by his brother, as Duncan II, but then by four of his own sons - one of whom, Edgar (1097–1107), changed the official language of Scotland from Gàidhlig (then, still a Scottish dialect of Old Irish) to Scots (then, a language similar to English but missing the Saxon element that has always been part of standard English). Gaelic dominance of Scotland ended during the reign of Alexander I (1107–1124), and the old Celtic system of matrilineal kingship finally ended and was replaced by a system of primogeniture.

Such a transition never happened in Ireland, but civil war and the imposition of Anglo-Norman rule intervened. Although Ireland had been culturally unified for centuries, it was not politically unified, even as a tribal nation.

The High King of Ireland was essentially a ceremonial, pseudo-federal overlord (where his over-lordship was even recognised), who exercised actual power only within the realm of which he was actually king. In the case of the southern branch of the Uí Niall, this would have been the Kingdom of Meath (modernly the counties of Meath, West Meath and part of County Dublin). High Kings from the northern branch of the family ruled various kingdoms in what eventually became the province of Ulster.

Nevertheless, the Uí Niall were apparently powerful in ceremony if not in politic, so that political unification of Ireland was not aided by the usurpation of the high kingship from Mael Sechnaill II and the southern Uí Niall in 1002 by Briain ‘Boruma’ mac Cennédig, of the Kingdom of Munster. This was the third of the so-called "Three Usurpations of Brian Boru."

Brian Boru was a strong king who could have unified Ireland politically, and there is some suggestion he intended to make himself High King of Scotland as well. But he was killed in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and twelve years as High King was not long enough to unify the island politically. Mael Sechnaill II was restored to the High Kingship but he died in 1022, too soon to undo the damage done by Brian's "coup." From 1022 through the Norman take-over of 1171, the High Kingship was held by "Kings with Opposition" - that is, whoever was strong enough to overthrow the High King of the day and take the Hill of Tara simply did so. This 150-year period of regnal unrest between families now called O'Brian, O'Conner, McLoughlin/O'Melaghlin, and others, was eventually immortalised in the children's game called "King of the Hill". The game is still popular among American children, who take turns trying to push each other off a low stool, chair, or other make-shift hill while arguing, "I'm king of the hill!" "No! I'm king!"

Because the native Irish high kingship never transitioned to a system of nation-state kingship primogeniture but simply faded into an oblivion of civil war between competing Irish royal families, there are literally as many as a million or more people[citation needed] who can make a claim to the ancient high kingship of Tara that is as equally valid as anybody else's under the old system disrupted by what may be called Brian Boru's "coup de tribe." Indeed, as a reputed descendant of Brian Boru and of the Uí Niall Dynasty both through his late grandmother, the current heir to the statutory throne that includes Northern Ireland, Prince Charles, could be considered a viable pretender[citation needed] to the high kingship of Ireland, especially as he would be making the claim through the female line of his ancestry. (The British Royal Family has publicly claimed descent from Brian Boru through the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and from other ancestors associated with the Ui Niall Dynasty - usually via marriage through the Royal Family's Scottish ancestry; see the history section of the Royal Family's website for bloodlines and timelines.) But see the remarks above regarding existing native dynasties, whose claims are more valid than those of the current British royal family.

Interestingly, some Irish rebels discussed offering the Irish throne to Prince Joachim of Prussia (son of Kaiser Wilhelm II) before the 1916 Easter Rising. This was obviously anti-English sentiment following the execution of the leaders of the rebellion. After the failure of the Rising (whose leaders established an Irish republic; the royalists were a minority among the rebels), the offer was, of course, never made. But had he been crowned, and Ireland had subsequently became a republic, Joachim's son, Franz Wilhelm, would be an Irish pretender; and, afterward, his son, George of Russia, would be an Irish as well as a Russian pretender.

Ottoman pretenders

Cem, eldest son born during the reign of his father, Mehmet the Conqueror claimed the Sultanate although he was defeated in battle months later by his eldest brother (by birth) Bayezid II. He fled to Rhodes Island then eventually to the Papal Territories. His descendants claimed Cem rights until Malta defeated the Ottomans in the 16th century. After the Ottoman empire was abolished, and the Republic of Turkey came into power, the successive heads of the Ottoman family claimed the throne of the Turkish empire.

Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Emperors of Ethiopia held the title of "King of Zion" through their claim of descent from the Biblical House of David through his son King Solomon. Menelik II dropped the use of this title. The Ethiopian Emperors continued to use the honorific of "Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah" up until the monarchy ended with the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.

Since the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, many European rulers have claimed to be its rightful heir. None of these, however, have actually ruled over a part of the former Kingdom. Today there are several potential European claimants on the basis of the inheritance of the title. None of the claimants have any power in the area of the former Kingdom. See the article Kings of Jerusalem for a list of potential claimants.

False pretenders

A number of individuals have claimed to be princes who disappeared or died under somewhat mysterious circumstances:

Claimant descendants of Royalty

There have also been individuals who claimed to be descendants of royalty:

Japanese descendants of Chinese emperors

Japanese clans like the Hata clan were descended from the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. See the article within Japanese clans for other descendants of Chinese emperors in Japan.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ See for example the Antipope Christopher.
  2. ^ Leto Severis, Ladies of Medieval Cyprus and Caterina Cornaro; Nicosia: 1995; ISBN 9963-8102-1-7.
  3. ^ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pretender&oldid=419102356"